china 2

our first major city in china was nanjing...it was the capital for a while, way back...these days, the city is probably most known for two things, the rape of nanking, and as being the site of the mausoleum of sun yat sen, the widely acknowledged founder of modern china...
the rape of nanking happened in the 1500s, i think...(can't remember for sure)...basically, the japanese were advancing and a confrontation seemed inevitable...instead of standing up, the leaders of nanking left the city...but before they left, they told the citizens to stand up and fight...then they left, and locked the city gates!! they only left one open, and loads of people were trampled or burned alive in the tunnel to the gate...anywho, the japanese advanced, and got into the city...and what they did to the citizens is awful...they massacred, tortured, etc...300,000 to 400,000 people died...that is, they were executed, (often after being tortured) sometimes in groups sometimes individually...in the first few days, nearly 20,000 women, ages 11-76 were raped...AWFUL...the japanese aren't known through history as being kind conquerors (or conqueror wannabes)...it's one of the reasons china and korea still harbour ill will toward japan...(that and that japan hasn't really apologized for so much of what it's done through history, and is now whitewashing what it did on many occasions)...anywho...
some of the city walls of nanjing are still standing, i wanted to see them...so i did...not that exciting, to tell the truth...i also wanted to see the mausoleum of sun yat sen...looking at the map in lonely planet, it looked like a longer walk to get there, but i reckoned it would be easy enough...i was wrong...the map in lonely planet left off a few things, and even the maps around the area made things look as if i should be able to go places i couldn't!!! the mausoleum is on a mountain (hill, really) just outside the city walls...there are also several ming dynasty mausoleums on the hill, but i wasn't so interested in those...a little, but not much...anywho, after walking all around and not really knowing how i got to various places, i finally found the mausoleum, and the entrance price had doubled!!! the guidebook was published in may, so who knows if they actually researched this particular site when they put out the new edition...argh...anywho, i still went in...the guy was actually pretty modest, and he probably wouldn't have appreciated what ended up being built...you walk up a bunch of steps to get to the mausoleum...he's in a marble casket, sealed shut...exciting, i know...there were lots of people there, even though the weather was awful...it must be absolutely PACKED when the weather is decent!!
speaking of weather, it was not good while we were in nanjing...there was a typhoon hitting taiwan and the south eastern coast, and the wind and rain definitely reached up to nanjing...ugh...because we weren't going to be in nanjing for very long, i didn't want to stay inside and do nothing...anywho...i ended up walking around the whole day in the wind and rain...the kind of rain that spins around so you never get to keep the umbrella in the same spot...and got splashed by water from cars who were going way too fast from the other side!! i ended up with blisters all over my feet...the only time chacos aren't bad is when my feet get wet, and stay wet...argh...by the end of the day, after being slightly lost, doing a lot of walking in bleeding pain, i was so ready to be back inside...oh well...
from nanjing we took another night train to tai'an...not a particularly exciting city, it's at the foot of tai shan, one of gazillions of sacred mountains in china...there is a temple in the middle of the city, which i enjoyed wandering around for a few hours, layna skipped that...the main reason we came to tai'an was to climb tai shan (mt tai in english)...after resting my feet for a day (remember the blisters i mentioned above?) we got up early one morning, walked to the foot of the mountain, paid the RIDICULOUS entry fee (nothing in china is free, not even mountains!) and started walking...steps upon steps upon steps...at least they were fairly regular, and not too big or steep...the whole way up/down there are lots of temples to stop in, they're mostly taoist...there are also lots of calligraphic inscriptions in many of the rocks...according to those who know, these are considered art...i thought some of them were pretty but since i couldn't read any of them, who knows...lol...half way up we rested, and watched people...chinese folks seem to be a bit more with it when it comes to footwear for hiking...they didn't all have hiking boots, but at least i didn't see any stilettos, which i did often see while hiking in korea...but i digress...since the trail was made of stone and such, hiking boots weren't really even needed at all...i could've done it in my chacos...(if the blisters hadn't still been there)...at several points during the hike i looked up and wondered if i had made any progress toward reaching the top, and it didn't look like it...LOTS OF STEPS...when we did finally get to the top, we weren't rewarded by amazing views...instead, we were able to see the brown layer of smog that hangs over the city...that layer hangs over sooooo many chinese cities, it's awful...there were a couple more temples at the top, and more calligraphic inscriptions...nothing exciting, but we were both glad we had done it...not surprisingly, by the time we got to the bottom, our legs were finished...as they say in french, mes jambes sont fracassee (sp?)...(and i know my tense is wrong, but that's beside the point)...
layna was wonderwoman, and that night took a train to beijing...she had a standing ticket, no seat!!